Agnes-Maria of Andechs-Meranien

Figure of Agnes-Maria von Andechs-Meranien, medieval miniature

Agnes-Maria von Andechs-Meranien (* around 1172 ; † July 18 or 19, 1201 in Castle Poissy ), only called Maria in various French chronicles , came from the house of the Counts of Andechs and was the third from 1196 to 1200 Wife of the French king Philippe-Auguste . Because his second marriage to Ingeborg of Denmark was not annulled by the papal curia , Agnes-Maria was never recognized by the Pope as the rightful Queen of France .

family

Agnes-Maria was born around 1172 as the daughter of the glorious participant in the crusade and Staufer friend, Duke Berthold IV of Andechs-Meranien and his second wife Agnes von Rochlitz . Her father was a direct vassal of the emperor and thus independent of the great duchies in Germany . Her mother came from the Wettin house . Agnes-Maria's siblings included Otto , the later Duke of Merania, the Margrave of Istria , a Bishop of Bamberg and Gertrud , the Queen of Hungary, and Hedwig , the Duchess of Silesia.

She married the French King Philippe-Auguste in 1196 and became his third wife, which further increased the family's position in the empire . After the wedding, Agnes appears to have changed her name to Maria. The connection resulted in three children:

• Marie (1198 - 15 August 1238), Princess of France

⚭ 1) 1210 Philip I , Count of Namur

⚭ 2) April 22, 1213 Henry I , Duke of Brabant

• Philipp Hurepel (* 1201; † 19 January 1234), Count of Clermont and von Boulogne, ⚭ 1216 with Mathilde von Dammartin
• Tristan (* / † 1201)

Life

Agnes Marie married on June 1, 1196 in Compiègne King Philippe-Auguste of France, who had rejected his second wife Ingeborg of Denmark . However, the marriage was never annulled by the Pope, which ultimately led to Philippe-Auguste's undoing. He was therefore canonically married to two women at the same time between 1196 and 1200 and thus lived in bigamy . Ingeborg of Denmark, however, did not want to get a divorce and tried to assert her claim as the rightful wife of the French king. Pope Innocent III supported the Danish king's daughter in her plan and attacked the new connection of the French king not only because the marriage was not valid from the point of view of the church, but also because of the couple's blood relationship. Philip's great-grandfather, Margrave Engelbert II of Istria , and Agnes's great-great-grandmother, Richardis, were siblings.

Philippe-Auguste initially did not react to the papal criticism, which is why the situation finally escalated. A council convened on December 6, 1199 in the Abbey of Saint-Benige in Dijon imposed the interdict over France with effect from January 13, 1200 . In order to have it lifted, Philippe-Auguste finally showed himself willing to compromise in August 1200 and promised not to have any more contact with Agnes-Maria until a procedure about his second marriage had finally decided. But when a verdict in favor of Ingeborg of Denmark was expected in the spring of 1201, the king left the court before the papal legates could announce their decision. However, this did not change anything in Agnes-Maria's status. She went to Poissy - pregnant with her third child - and died in the castle there of the consequences of the birth on July 18 or 19, 1201. The newborn did not survive either. Agnes' body was buried in the Benedictine monastery of St. Corentin-lès-Mantes northwest of Paris . Philippe-Auguste had the name of Agnes-Marias and her father's name entered in the book of the dead in the Abbey of Saint Denis .

Her two surviving children, Philipp and Marie, were legitimized by the Pope on November 2, 1201 at the request of the French king. The fate of Agnes-Maria was dealt with by François Ponsard in his tragedy Agnès de Méranie .

literature

• Christian Bouyer: Dictionnaire des Reines de France . Perrin, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-262-00789-6 .
• Alexander Cartellieri : Philipp August and Richard the Lionheart (1192-1199) (= Philip II August, King of France . Volume 3). Scientia, 1910, pp. 131-132.
• Gerd Hit: The French queens. From Bertrada to Marie Antoinette (8th – 18th centuries) . Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1530-5 , pp. 119-121.
• Carsten Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 (= historical research . Volume 24). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-08113-5 , pp. 266-268.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ C. Bouyer: Dictionnaire des Reines de France , o. P.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 267.
3. ↑ ^{a b} C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 266.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Jaques Boussard: Agnes of Meran . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 1. dtv, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-59057-2 , Sp. 213.
5. ↑ Information on Marie on the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy website , accessed May 25, 2013.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} G. Hit: The French queens. From Bertrada to Marie Antoinette (8th – 18th centuries) , p. 121.
7. ↑ G. Hit: The French queens. From Bertrada to Marie Antoinette (8th – 18th centuries) , p. 120.
8. ↑ Josef Kirmeier (ed.): Dukes and saints. The Andechs-Meranians. House of Bavarian History, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-927233-29-3 (catalog of the state exhibition of the same name in Andechs Monastery, July 13 to October 24, 1993).

predecessor	Office	Successor
Ingeborg of Denmark	Queen of France 1196–1200	Blanka of Castile